Linus was always bitchy...

Posted Sep 27, 2006 10:59 UTC (Wed) by khim (subscriber, #9252)
In reply to: Linus was always bitchy... by fooker
Parent article: Why Torvalds is sitting out the GPLv3 process (Linux.com)

s far as I understand the spirit of the GPL is to guarantee free use of program code, nothing else

Wrong. Very wrong. The goal from the start was to make it possible that the "user who needs changes in the system will always be free to make them himself, or hire any available programmer or company to make them for him. Users will no longer be at the mercy of one programmer or company which owns the sources and is in sole position to make changes". That was the goal from the start.

You can have all the GPL'd code used in a TiVo box and use it in any way you like, as per the license. You just can't run your modified programs in the box.

If you can not run modified code then the whole house of cards just become useless. This means GPL failed to achieve the thing it was supposed to do. This is why the GPLv3 is needed in first place - GPLv2 is not enough in today's world to guarantee it!